Want to try one? They are delicious.
🌵Prickly pear cacti are loaded with gorgeous, colorful fruit during these hot and sunny late August days. You simply can't miss them. You can spot them especially in southern Italy, lining countryside roads and railway tracks.
Every time I see them, I take a trip down memory lane.
When I was a kid, I used to eat so many of them. There was always that carefree moment interrupted by a tiny, invisible thorn piercing your skin and hurting for days. 😅
Today, luckily, I’ve learned how to peel them. Here is the ultimate method I use:
• Secure the fruit by piercing it firmly right in the middle with a fork. Never touch it with bare hands.
• Using a sharp knife, slice off both ends (the top and the base).
• Make a gentle longitudinal cut along the skin, from one end to the other.
• Use the knife blade to pry the skin open and roll the fruit out. You will get a perfect, clean cylinder without a single thorn.
An extra tip: Soak them in a bowl of water beforehand to help remove the thorns. Then, pop them in the fridge for a couple of hours before peeling. Cold, on these late summer days, they are absolutely heaven.
❓ Do any of you still have childhood thorn trauma like me, or did you always know how to peel them? 😉
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